"No, baby, she's not going to wake up," he replies sadly, as he, too, begins to cry while holding on to me.
"Get her out of here!!" another man screams as he walks in, taking in the scene. His chest heaves rapidly as he looks between Mommy and me. "GET OUT!" he says louder.
Mark carries me in his arms, my blood-soaked pajamas hanging heavily from my body and sticking to his, as he takes me to the black van.
"Why my mommy?" I wail.
I look up at Mark, his face suddenly becoming Benny's. "That wasn't your mommy," he says with a harsh laugh before pinning me with his crazed eyes. "That was you."
I gasp, trying and failing to sit up. I cringe from the pain that runs from the tip of my head all the way down my body. I blink at the bright lights around me and blink some more until I can focus and see that I'm in a hospital. The last thing I remember is Dean holding my hand and telling me everything was going to be fine. A sudden shift in the bed fills my stomach with apprehension.
"Oh, thank God," he says hoarsely and pulls my face into his hard chest. I squeeze my eyes shut and will my heart to slow because I know that my sick imagination is playing tricks on me again. I miss that voice so much it hurts. When I sniffle my tears, I'm consumed with his unmistakable fresh scent, and I know this has to be real…unless I'm dead.
"Blake, look at me," he says quietly as he touches the side of my face and backs away from me a little. My breath starts coming out quickly, in gasps as I tilt my head and open my eyes slowly to meet the most brilliant green eyes I've ever seen. We stare at each other for a long moment with tears in our eyes, before his arms swallow my body in his, shielding me from everything—the light, the dark, and everything in between. For the first time in a very long time, I feel safe. Truly safe. My body begins to shake from my muffled sobs and I cling on to him tighter, not daring to let him go. I pour all of my angst out, trying to let go of the bad and really just grateful that I have something good. Finally.
"Please don't leave me," I whisper against his chest once our sobbing calms. "Please, please don't let them take me away from you again."
"Oh God, baby, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry I wasn't there. I'm so sorry they took you and I wasn't there to protect you. I'm sorry you had to go through that by yourself," he whispers hoarsely. I nod against him, inhaling his scent, that scent I missed so damn much and was beginning to forget.
We separate and wipe our faces as we study each other. He lightly caresses my face with his thumb. "You have some bruising...and stitches on your head," he says with furrowed eyebrows.
As I move away, I feel a heavy, gooey pool in between my legs. My eyes widen and I look at Cole, completely horrified. "What about-" I stop myself before I can continue because I already know the answer, but for some reason I need to hear somebody say it. I'm not even sure if he would have heard about it though.
"What about what?" he asks, his hand stilling on my cheek when he registers the scared look in my eyes.
"The baby," I whisper, dropping my gaze from his and holding my stomach with my hands.
"I'm sorry," he replies huskily. I bury my face in my hands and let out a strangled, tearless sob before I take a couple of breaths, struggling for air. When I'm able to look at him again, I place my hand on top of his and we give each other a squeeze.
"Me too," I reply quietly. "I should've tried harder."
"No, Blake. You had nothing to do with losing the baby, please don't think that," he says, looking at me with loving eyes as he strokes my cheek softly.
I nod, blinking away the tears pooling in my eyes again. He carefully adjusts my body to face his and we lay there for a long time cataloging every inch of each other's faces.
He presses a kiss on my lips and for a moment I forget everything. I grab both sides of his face and plunge my tongue into his mouth. He groans deeply and grabs me by the back of the neck, pulling us as close together as we can be. I hear one of the monitors behind me start beeping uncontrollably, but I don't care to check it. Somebody clearing their throat causes us to break apart, but we don't look away from each other's eyes. In this moment I realize that I'm not sure how long I was kidnapped, but nothing, nobody, can hold me hostage like Cole's eyes can. "Welcome back, Blake. I'm glad to see you're feeling better. We got notified about the increase in heart rate so I came to check up on you. Now I know why it happened, though," she says with a smile and a raised eyebrow. "You should rest."
I smile back at her, and just as I'm about to thank her, the door opens behind her and our heads turn to watch Aubry step in. He looks at me for what seems like an eternity before he buries his face in his hands and starts to cry. Cole shifts off the bed and walks over to him and hugs him, telling him that I'm okay before they walk over to me.
"Cowboy," Aubry says, his voice wavering. "I can't..." he pauses to swallow, but doesn't say anything else, just sits where Cole was previously laying and pulls me into a hug.
"I'm fine, Aub. You can't get rid of me or my laundry," I say, muffled into his chest.
He laughs and pulls away from me as tears roll down his cheeks. "I missed you so fucking much, Cowboy. You don't even know."
"Is she okay to walk?" Cole asks Dyann as she fixes my IV.
"Sure, if she's up for it," she replies, looking at me with a smile before she leaves the room.
"I missed you too, Aub," I mutter leaning the side of my head into his chest. He rests his chin on top of my head, and Cole moves to the other side of the bed to sit by my feet.
For the next hour, we alternate between just staring at each other and verbalizing how much we missed each other. I ask them about Aimee, Greg and Becky and they ask me about where I was being kept and what was going on there.
"You want me to get you some real food?" Aubry asks suddenly.
"I would kill for a pizza right now," I respond, making them both chuckle.
"Becky has been calling me non-stop since she heard, has she called you?" Aubry asks, looking at Cole.
"My reception sucks in here. I wanted to let Blake rest anyway, and you know Becky-"
"It's fine, I'll call her," I say.
"I'm going to get you your pizza. Want something, Cole?" Aubry asks as he heads out.
"Nah, thanks. I have everything I need right here," Cole replies, looking at me as he grabs my feet. When Aubry leaves, Cole moves back to his original spot beside me.
"I was pregnant and now I'm not," I say quietly as I touch my flat stomach.
"Shh, it's okay," he says as he strokes my hair softly. "Right now, the important thing is that you're here and you're okay."
"But I lost our baby, Cole," I say before I start to sob again. "I lost your baby. I'm so sorry."
"No, baby, no," he coos. "You didn't lose our baby. It just wasn't his time to come into our lives. He'll come back to us, you'll see."
I wipe my tears away to look at him. I can tell it's taking a lot for him to say those words. "Do you really believe that?" I ask hopefully.
"I do. I think everybody comes into our lives at the perfect time, and it just wasn't his time," he replies quietly before kissing the tip of my nose.
"Thank you." I lean back on his chest.
"I met my parents," he says suddenly, making me shift my body as much as it lets me.
"What?" I gasp. "How? What happened?"
"I went to their house with Aimee," he says with a shrug as if it's no big deal.
"Cole! What happened? What made you finally do it?"
"The same thing that makes me do all the crazy shit I do," he replies, shaking his head. "You."
"Me?" I ask in confusion.
"Baby, you'd been missing for over two weeks, I was desperate to find you. The cops had stopped searching, Mark was being an asshole. God, I have so much to tell you, but I want to make sure you're up for it, so I'll wait until we get out of here, okay?"
I groan and throw my head back. "Just tell me about your parents."
"So I went to their house...I saw the Home Alone house,
by the way."